Maxamoo's New York City Theater Podcast Maxamoo

 

Jose, Nicole, and Ben discuss shows and other things from the theater community that have gone online during the pandemic.


 

Introductions (0:00)

Contagious Closet Dramas, presented by Two Headed Rep on Instagram (1:39)

It’s True, It’s True, It’s True by Breach Theatre (6:13)

The Shows Must Go On, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s new YouTube channel (9:08)

The New York Neo Futurists’ Hit Play podcast (12:35)

The Infinite Wrench Goes Viral by The Neo Futurusts (13:25)

The Schaubuehne in Berlin (15:25)

Subway Plays and Ferry Play by This Is Not a Theatre Company (21:26) (We also mention this previous Maxamoo episode featuring an interview with Artistic DirectorErin Mee!)

#PipelineOnline by WP Theater (26:41)

HERE@HOME (32:28)

you have to forgive me… by Brian Lobel (36:04) (We also mention this previous Maxamoo episode featuring an interview with Brian Lobel!)

Outro (47:23)


 


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Jose and PennyMaria are joined by author Warren Hoffman to discuss the newly published second edition of his book The Great White Way: Race and the Broadway Musical. Their conversation includes a closer look at West Side Story, both historically and through the lens of the revival Ivo Von Hove directed for Broadway this season.

The Great White Way: Race and the Broadway Musical (second edition) is available wherever books are sold, including from Rutgers University Press or your local independent bookstore.

If you’d like to hear the couple of songs cut from West Side Story during its development that we discuss, you can find them in this YouTube video.

This is our first episode recorded with all the participants in different spaces – yay social distancing! – and while it’s pretty good, there are some moments of roughness in the audio. Please bear with us as we adapt to our new circumstances. We’re learning as we go! It was produced by David, so if you have helpful advice, feel free to reach out to him.

Incidentally, if you are a theater artist with creative approaches to making work or caring for other theater artists during this time, and you’d like to chat about it on a future episode, please slide into our DMs or email us at podcast@maxamoo.com (but if you can slide into our DMs, we’ll see that faster).


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All 9 of our regular contributors have gathered: Aurin, Ben, David, Jack, Jose, Liz, Nicole, Patty, and PennyMaria! We’re back together for our year-end spectacular, our annual episode in which we discuss the best and worst theater of the year.

If you have trouble telling any voices apart, we’re seated in a circle and the order we answer questions in is, roughly: Liz, Nicole, Jose, Jack, PennyMaria, Aurin, Ben, David, Patty. (Jack had to leave early, so don’t get freaked out when he disappears half-way through the episode.)

See below for timecodes of the questions we answer:

(0:40) What, to you, was the most impactful theater moment of the decade?

(13:56) The Isaac Butler Honorary Question: What performer/performance this year moved your Kinsey number?

(22:10) What was the worst case of Theater FOMO (fear of missing out) you suffered this year?

(29:21) What show do you wish more audiences had a chance to see?

(37:10) What made you cry at the theater this year?

(46:46) Did anyone leave any shows early? What did you leave?

(53:31) If you were hosting a panel at BroadwayCon (or Off-BroadwayCon, if you’d prefer), what would it be?

(1:02:22) What performer in a small role in 2019 would you like to see as the lead of a smash-hit star vehicle in 2020?


Subscribe to Maxamoo’s Theater and Performance Podcast for free on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or Stitcher.

More info and merch  | Follow us on Twitter  | Find us on Facebook

All 9 of our regular contributors have gathered: Aurin, Ben, David, Jack, Jose, Liz, Nicole, Patty, and PennyMaria! We’re back together for our year-end spectacular, our annual episode in which we discuss the best and worst theater of the year.
If you have trouble telling any voices apart, we’re seated in a circle and the order we answer questions in is, roughly: Liz, Nicole, Jose, Jack, PennyMaria, Aurin, Ben, David, Patty. Each question we rotate who answers first; so Liz is the first person to answer the first question, Nicole is the first to answer the second question, and so on.
See below for timecodes of the questions we answer (and lists of shows we highlight):
 
(0:00:00) Introductions
 
(0:01:48) If you had relatives (smart ones who enjoy good theater) coming to town for the holidays, what show currently playing in New York City would you recommend? (0:01:48)
• American Utopia on Broadway
• The Sound Inside on Broadway
• Mac Beth at Hunter Theater Project
• Is This a Room at the Vineyard Theatre (2 recommendations!)
• One In Two produced by the New Group at Signature Theatre
• A Soldier’s Play on Broadway
• The Exponential Festival
• Pip’s Island
• Beetlejuice on Broadway
 
(0:11:11) What was your favorite moment at the theater this year?
Our moments took place at/during/around:
• Skittles Commercial: The Broadway Musical at Town Hall
• Into the Woods at the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival
• Blue Ridge at Atlantic Theater Company
• BLKS at MCC
• Signature Theatre’s lobby
• Playwrights Horizons’s season, in particular: I Was Most Alive With You, The Thin Place, and A Strange Loop
• The Trade Federation: Or, Let’s Explore Globalization Through the Star Wars Prequels at IRT Theater
• The Exponential Festival
• God Said This at Primary Stages
• Six at Chicago Shakespeare Theater
• Fefu and her Friends at Theatre for a New Audience
 
(0:25:23) What was your worst moment at the theater this year?
 
 
(0:42:15) What was your favorite non-traditional (immersive, experimental, outdoors, on a boat) piece of theater you saw this year?
• The Jazz Singer at Abrons Arts Center
• Much Ado about Nothing at The Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park
• The Bushwick Starr
• The Brick Theater
• Block Association Project produced by The Playwrights Realm
• Pip’s Island
• Midsummer: A Banquet produced by Food of Love and Third Rail Productions
• The Shubert Archive
• Caveat
• Wild Bore at the NYU Skirball Center
• The B Side: “Negro Folklore from Texas State Prisons” by the Wooster Group at St. Ann’s Warehouse
 
(0:55:59) What was your favorite non-theater performance (cabaret, comedy, music, etc)?
• globalFEST
• Tank and the Bangas at the Apollo Theater
• Bad Faith at the Daryl Roth Theater
• Douglas at the Daryl Roth Theater
• Ten Days Next to a Cheesecake Factory at the People’s Improv Theater

Aurin, Nicole, and PennyMaria discuss 2 shows shows on Broadway and 2 shows Off-Broadway.


 

Introductions (0:00)

The Inheritance on Broadway (1:10)

for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf at the Public Theater (16:10)

Fires in the Mirror at Signature Theatre (37:41)

Tina on Broadway (51:59)

Things we’re excited for (1:05:18)

• Keep at St. Ann’s Warehouse

• Greater Clements at Lincoln Center Theater

• Measure for Measure at the Public Theater

• One in Two produced by The New Group at Signature Center

• The Thin Place at Playwrights Horizons

• The Minutes on Broadway

• We’re Gonna Die on Broadway

• Ryan J. Haddad: Falling for Make Believe at Joe’s Pub

• Triple Threat in Under the Radar


 

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Liz, David, and Jack talk about what they’re excited to see in December and January! We talk about:

Virgo Star by Pioneers Go East Collective at La Mama (1:13)

Fefu and Her Friends by María Irene Fornés at Theatre for a New Audience (2:49)

The Thin Place by Lucas Hnath at Playwrights Horizon (9:37)

Conway by Rory McGregor at Theaterlab (16:16)

Greater Clements by Samuel D. Hunter at Lincoln Center Theater (19:29)

One in Two by Donja R. Love at The New Group (22:48)

King Lear Project by William Shakespeare, adapted by Bryan Doerries at Theater of War (26:09)

Sing Street – Book by Enda Walsh, Music & Lyrics by John Carney & Gary Clark at New York Theatre Workshop (31:07)

Endlings by Celine Song at New York Theatre Workshop (34:37)

The Conversationalists by James & Jerome at The Bushwick Starr (37:57)

The María Irene Fornés documentary Jack mentions is The Rest I Make Up.


Subscribe to Maxamoo’s Theater and Performance Podcast for free on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or Stitcher.

More info and merch  |  Follow us on Twitter  |  Find us on Facebook